One tequila, two tequila, three tequila . . . . .

I thought I should give you a little run down on our first day & evening in Mexico. Emrick seems to have skipped right by our "checking into the country process" & our first night here. What a riot. We decided to complete our checking-in process by ourselves (after we found out the cost for assistance had gone from $50.00 to $85.00). We were given directions & started out to the CIS building where all the paperwork is completed. Mind you, E & I had been sailing all night so our minds were not as quick as we would have liked them to be. The directions did not turn out to be that accurate but we found the building & began the process. There were four windowed sections that housed immigration, the port captain, customs & visa office. We proceeded to bounce from one side of the room to the other, handing the people behind the glass our pile of papers & watch as they pulled out what they needed from our pile, created new forms, had us complete new forms, pay them money for the transaction & then point us across the room to go see someone else. It was pretty comical because you use sign language & try very hard to understand what they wanted from you. During this two hour process we met Dean & Gary from the s/v Unda who were there to check-in as well. We had originally met them in Santa Barbara & it was nice to be able to talk with someone who spoke English & was in the same boat we were, so to speak. Needless to say when all was said & done we were exhausted but set a date to meet up with Dean & Gary later to go out for dinner. By the time we got back to the boat we had managed to walk around the town of Ensenada a little, get our bearings & check out some of the shops & restaurants. When we headed out for dinner that night E & I had no idea of what to expect but Dean & Gary had been to Mexico before so they were able to tell us what we could & should not eat, etc. So we ended up in an open air cafe where the people were very happy to have customers. We ordered fajitas. The food was good but different. Portions are smaller, the rice is white, the beans are a very dark brown, the tortillas are smaller but freshly made & the meat is not cooked with peppers, just onions. The waiter was very attentive & the minute the food plates were removed the tequila started. We did not order it, the waiter just set down little (1/2 shot) glasses & poured us each a full glass, gave us salt & limes & we drank the shot (the waiter had a shot with us). After a few minutes the waiter reappeared & again set down the little glasses, pouring us all another shot. By the 3rd round we decided we better get out of there while we could still walk. What a great evening. I LOVE this place!

San Diego Pics

This is just a little ol' ship that was across from us in San Diego. It had to be over 100 feet long. I wondered how they got the thing into the slip . . . .

This is the cruise ship that was behind us coming out of the harbor.

Greetings from MEXICO!!!!

Having spent the last month or so in California, I have to say my first impression is that the people look pretty much the same here, and they sound pretty much the same too. I still don’t understand Spanish.
We’re in Ensenada Mexico, just 65 miles south of San Diego, having left S D in kind of a hurry; we had planned to stay there a few days to rest up, relax, and recreate, but our marina had their showers under reconstruction. Well, anyone who knows Claudia knows that I had to do something. Every other marina I called wanted $2.00 per foot per night- $64 for Sojourner. Well, I choked and did the only thing I could. Leave. We’ll post pics of our departure, but you know how hard it is to get the really great stuff into a camera, so I’ll try and tell you about it while catching some rays, Bud in hand, and Spanish music in the background.
San Diego harbor is kind of busy. It is home to the U S Navy, commercial docks aplenty, and some 9,000 pleasure boats. It was about 4:00 PM when we left the dock with just over an hour of daylight left. About halfway out the 3 or 4 mile long entrance channel, I looked back and saw this monster white cruise ship steaming toward us. Tried to reach him on the radio, but no response. So, we took a hard left and got out of the way. The sunset was brilliant as the big ship passed by. Then, back into the channel, and we hear these two warships talking to each other on the radio about how they’re going to avoid running into each other. So, I look behind again, and this time, I swear, it’s an aircraft carrier climbing up our butt. Well, we know the drill. Hard to port! What a sight!
Then, back into the channel again and we see this other warship bearing down on us from dead ahead about 3 – 4 miles out. But we now know that he must be warship 88 from the earlier radio conversation and we’re able to radio him by name, so we arranged to avoid each other, and off we went. The rest of the night was a piece of cake, though the breeze was on our nose so we motored the whole night, arriving Ensenada about 10:00AM
As I write this, it’s Saturday, and the moon is now rising and looks to be about ¼ full, so, if we leave here on our 300 mile journey to Turtle Bay – the next fuel and services – by Monday or Tuesday, we should have good light at night. We all presently live 14 hours in darkness to get 10 hours of daylight, and while the days here in the upper 60’s are surely warmer than where most of you are, the nights, especially at sea, are still quite cold. Claudia is disappointed to find that she still needs her Carhart insulated pants and her Russian looking furry cap with the earflaps. I really should take a picture, but since she does the pic posting, you’d never see it.
Maxine is in the cockpit with me, and she’s giving me this look. You know the one. “You’ve been ignoring me. People want to know about me too.” Well, the fact is, she has been a good crew. She mostly stays where we put her and she doesn’t eat much, so I promise to include her more in the future. In the meantime, I’m working on my manyana (tomorrow is soon enough) and Margarita attitude. E

Pics from our sail to Catalina & Avalon Harbor

Couple pics of the storm that was causing the water spouts & lightening as we sailed to Catelina. We were getting weather warnings over the radio as we were sailing.

Above are pics from Avalon Harbor.

Saturday, Nov 29

We are now in our third day at Two Harbors, Catalina Island. We've read about and heard of this place for years; A Paradise Island getaway for southern California boaters. How could we be in the area without stopping here for at least a couple days?

The Island is interesting. With hills, trees and trails, many small coves along the coast, and the water is clear - we can see the bottom in 18 feet where Sojourner is moored. There are palm type trees everywhere and the little settlement of Two Harbors is really nice with a good bar and restaraunt, a well stocked general store and an outdoor amphitheater and BBQ that could handle hundreds.

Yet, we're both getting restless, anxious to move on, to get past the smog and the beautiful people and the $5.00 beers. Since we passed Point Conception a couple weeks ago, the weather and the ocean have improved to where our best days are now at sea going somewhere. At the same time, our cost of living has risen to where it just isn't much fun being here anymore.

So, tomorrow we'll sail the 12 miles to the town of Avalon on the east end of the island. This also puts us about 3 hours closer to our next stop at Oceanside, CA. We'll probably stay at Avalon for one part night, leaving about 3:00AM Monday to reach Oceanside during daylight. Then on to San Diego for a couple days before crossing into MEXICO!!!!! E

Marina Del Rey

I am standing in our companionway with the computer sitting on top of hatch cover in order to get any internet. Well, at least it is working! We traveled to Marina Del Ray (Venice beach is right next door) yesterday leaving at 0400 & arriving at 1430. The early start was to avoid arriving at night. The ocean was pretty quiet. We tried to use the sails a couple of times but the wind was too flaky to give us any consistent boost. The forcast called for rain all day & we didn't see a drop until we were in the marina. When we pulled into the marina looking for the transiet dock we spied our friends on "Pomaikai" already tied up. Nice surprise. Our plan was to leave today but it looks like we will be traveling to Catalina island tomorrow morning. We have purchased a turkey with the trimmings that will probably be cooking on our way to the island. There have been some storms circling around the area. This mornings marine report talked about waterspouts & cloud to ocean lightening hence the delay in departure until tomorrow. We are wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. C

Ventura Harbor Boat Yard

We arrived in Ventura Monday afternoon after a slow trip in the fog. I mean FOG. We had to thread our way through the oil rigs that we couldn't see & those pesky buoys that you find on the GPS but never find in real life. We had a few power boats come out of the fog near us & Emrick had to hail one of them move over. Once we arrived & found the harbor boat yard we slid into the area for the travel lift & up we went (the pics show you how that goes). The yard started work the next day. The rudder was in fact very loose & I guess that is to be expected after 30 years of use. They allowed us to stay in the boat while the work was being done which saved us some $. The work is done & we will go back into the water today to test out all the repairs. While sitting "up in the air" on Friday some friends we met in Morro Bay showed up looking for us. We had a great visit with them that night & they moved on to Marina Del Ray on Saturday to meet up with us in Catalina. We will be leaving for Marina Del Ray early tomorrow, stay the night & then move on to Catalina Island Wednesday. We plan to spend the holiday weekend there & then move on to San Diego.